


We Have the Technology

by BurningFox6



Category: Kindergarten (Video Game 2017)
Genre: Closure, Cool new robot parts, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Spoilers, headcanons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-02
Updated: 2019-08-02
Packaged: 2020-07-29 16:54:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20085595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BurningFox6/pseuds/BurningFox6
Summary: (CONTAINS SPOILERS) The Principal had said she could be rebuilt – there just wasn’t much chance of that happening with her out of the picture. Thankfully, there may still be someone who can fix her broken body… and fix her broken heart.





	We Have the Technology

**Author's Note:**

> I've already said it in the summary and tags, but this contains spoilers for the newly released Kindergarten 2. So if you want to play or watch it yourself, tread carefully!
> 
> I ended up binging Kindergarten 2 when it came out, and it was really good! The final route was very satisfying - but it worried me that Penny got nuked and, though her mom said she could rebuild her, she's kinda dead now. So I thought about how she could still come back and thought of a few things. I quickly popped them into this story, so maybe the poor girl can finally have a happy ending.

_. . . R E B O O T I N G . . ._

_System Diagnostics – Operating at 100% efficiency._  
Composition – 41.7% biological, 58.3% mechanical.  
Memories – Reuploaded.  
Power – On. 

Penny’s eyes jolted open. Well, one did. The other sort of… whirred at her? She sat up, reaching for it, not understanding what it meant. All she felt was glass and metal under her fingertips. Her breath caught in her throat. What was this? What was going on? And where was she? 

She could answer one of those, at least. She looked around, peering with her strange new eye. It felt weird, but it worked. It looked like she was laying on one of the desks in the science lab – which didn’t make any sense, since the last thing she could remember was being far underground… an explosion… her gaze burning, and then everything going black. But nope, this was definitely the lab; she could see beakers, the computers, the giant magnets that made her very uncomfortable, the sketchy lunch lady…

Penny screamed. Her twitchy aunt was standing beside her, covered in oily black and green fluids while wiping a wrench off with a rag. She didn’t react to the cry of alarm, which didn’t really help make her seem any less creepy. “Good morning, daughter,” she simply muttered.

“…” Penny’s gut twisted in a knot. Not only was the lunch lady – Margaret – delusional about their relationship, but she was making the girl remember what her actual mommy had done to her. “You’re not…” she tried to protest, but couldn’t really bring herself to argue. She just wanted answers. “…What happened? What’s this?” she changed the subject, gesturing to her face’s new feature.

“Sister did a terrible thing. I fixed you.”

Well that explained nothing. “…But how? Aren’t you just a lunch lady?”

Margaret made a sound that might’ve been a laugh had it come from a more sane individual. “After everything you saw, you still think Sister was just a principal, too, don’t you? No. Both of us, scientists. Her, genetics. Me, robotics. Neither of us could get jobs in the field… she convinced me we could at least pass knowledge to next generation. Didn’t do a good job of it, given she made me a lunch lady after she became headmaster. Asked for better, but she said it wouldn’t work. Didn’t say why.” As she spoke, her pupils spread out to the sides of her eyes. Yeah. A complete mystery why she wouldn’t work as a scientist or teacher.

Her terse way of speaking left Penny on edge, although everything she said made sense. Kind of. Barely. It was a lot to process for a little girl. But she’d mentioned she’d fixed her, and she worked with robots… “Then this is…” she said, touching her eye again.

“Scanner,” Margaret filled in. “You’re more machine than girl now. Sad, but all I could do. Lots of damage after needing repairs. Twice. Thankfully, still not very visible outside of face. You’ll live.”

…Now, Penny was kinda wishing she hadn’t asked for answers. She drew her knees to her chest, hugging them, sniffling as the realizations washed over her. She was a freak. She’d been forced to do terrible things. Her mother tried to kill her. No one would ever want to be her friend, and the one person she’d loved had blown her to smithereens. There was only so much a child could take. Soft hiccups filled the room, eventually degenerating into full on sobbing. She wished she’d never woken back up. She wanted to go back, back before she’d even become an android in the first place…

The lunch lady simply stared. Clearly, social cues weren’t her strong point. But, thankfully, she tossed the rag aside and stepped up to awkwardly loop an arm around her, oblivious to the grease stains she was spreading. “There, there, daughter. Sister is gone… but I’m your mother now. I did everything she told me. Now she’s dead.” She frowned, and for a moment there was genuine grief in her eyes. “You are only family I have left. Will not be easy. Will need many changes. But I will succeed where she failed. I promise.”

Another hiccup. “Y-you’re going to try and make h-h-horrible mutants, too?”

“No. I will give you happy life. Or at least keep you from falling apart.”

It wasn’t all that reassuring… but it got Penny to stop and wipe the tears from her still-human eye. “B-but… I’m all ugly now… n-n-no one will w-want to talk to me anymore…”

“They did not talk to you much in first place.” Ouch. “But, other children find me while I scoop you off floor. Worried if you were gone for good. I reassured them. They want to talk to you when you’re ready. Think you can help them deal with rest of school district. Maybe want to be friends?”

Penny just stared in disbelief. They didn’t hate her for what her mom made her do? They wanted to see her? It was too good to be true. While she tried to process it, she felt something being pressed into her hands. She looked down to see Margaret had given her a little dolly… _her_ dolly.

“Know you always liked this,” she explained, pulling away to clean up the tools. “Thought it might make you feel better. And if kids be mean, just tell me. Will spatula them good.”

Penny had no idea what that meant, but didn’t really care, too focused on the toy. It was the one thing she had that reminded her of happier times – and now, it told her maybe she could be happy again. Silently, she hugged it, and unseen to her, Margaret had the barest of smiles on her face.

A weird new mommy who seemed to care. Friends. Hope. Penny took a deep, shaky breath, chasing the rest of her tremors away. Maybe… maybe everything would be okay.


End file.
